Does Google read the top line templated content?

[driller41]

Hi, the top line of my site which is visible to the engines is stuff like:-

Sign Account Customer Service Search Products

It is not Keyword text, does Google skip this stuff or pay it attention as it is the very top of the page content.?

I mean should I get rid of it and add some light keywords first?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 3:43 pm (utc) on Aug. 29, 2008]

[Quadrille]

Unless there's a good reason why not, Google looks at the whole page.

the order probably does not matter at all; there used to be a widespread belief that order was important, but I think this cult is waning.

[BenjArriola]

I remember < watching an SEO video that was > talking about consistent parts of page on many pages are kind of identified as the template and Google seems to be able to determine what is the main content area. Now how valid is this statement and if there is any official Google statement about this, I do not know. But I tend to believe this is true. It is not really skipped, but Google knows it is less important since it is not the main content.

[edited by: tedster at 5:49 am (utc) on Sep. 7, 2008]

[Robert Charlton]

Some years back, before Google went public, they had a student programming contest, and the winner's project was on the topic of distinguishing templated content from main content. I assume this, and much work since, has been incorporated in Google's view of a page... and that the winner is perhaps still working for Google.

The tricky part, I would think, would be assessing what parts of templated content are important, and how important, and what parts aren't.

This WebmasterWorld discussion on source ordered content may have some bearing on your thoughts...

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3551397.htm
[webmasterworld.com...]

When I can, I try to move big blocks of content, at least, down below my main content, albeit I've not seen big changes from shifting nav menus. I would always strain, though, to shift big blocks of unrelated text like form input code.

Snippet management is another reason for shifting text.

[Quadrille]

Since css, which has allowed the code to be in a completely different order from the displayed page, I think Google must have accepted that they have to look at the whole page.

I do believe they can largely distinguishe between 'template stuff' and unique page content - they need to for the duplicate content stuff.

And let's face it, how hard can it be - for Google - matching the pages within a site and recognising common features? :)